The canal system of Bolshoy Solovetsky Island

This essay on the Sovovetsy canal system is by Ekaterina Kalemeneva, who was our guide last summer on the Network's field trip to the Solovetskii islands.

Network poster

A poster providing information about the Network is now available to download from the website at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/#tab-7 under the subheading "Network Publicity"

Solovetsky – from spirituality to coercion. And back...

A photo essay on the Network trip to the Solovetsky Islands last August, produced by participant Ion Von Sucala, is now available to view on the website. You can access this, and other essays and information about the trip, at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/events/#tab-2 

Essays on the Network Trip to the Solovetskii Islands

A number of Network members who took part in the trip to the Solovetskii Islands in August 2013 have contributed essays on the trip to the Network website. These can be viewed at:

http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/#tab-7

More photos from the Solovetskii Islands and St Petersburg

Ion Voicu Sucala is a Ph.D. student at the University of Glasgow researching “The selection of the organisational elite in Communist Romania”. He is a visiting researcher with the Network and has published many of his photos from the recent Network trip to St Petersburg and the Solovetskii Islands on his blog http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk

In particular his photos from the Solovetskii Islands can be found at
http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/solovki-islands-august-2013.html and
http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/solovki-archipelago-august-2013.html

and his photos from St Petersburg are at http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/st-petersburg-august-2013.html

More photos from the trip can be found on the Network website at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/solovkigallery/

St Petersburg - photo by Ion Voicu Sucala

Nicholas Breyfogle's Blog on the Solovki trip

Network Partner Prof Nicholas Breyfogle from Ohio State University has created the blog Enironment–Water–History: Explorations in Ecological History which features a series of posts on the Network's recent trip to St Petersburg and the Solovetskii Islands. You can find it at https://u.osu.edu/breyfogle.1/

To the Blockade Stickleback
The shelling has fallen silent and the bombing too,
But, to this day, praise is sounded
To the blockade little fish
That helped the people to survive
                        — M. G. Aminova
                        –plaque erected for the 300-year anniversary of Kronstadt.

Photo by Nicholas Breyfogle

Field Trip to the Solovetskii Islands - August 2013

Monastery on Solovki - photo by Abi Sutton

In August, Network partners and invited specialists participated in a field trip to the Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea. These islands have a unique flora and fauna and have been inhabited since pre-history, hosting, among others, a fishing community, an Orthodox monastery and the first Soviet labour camp (gulag). The islands are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and offer rich materials to investigate the relationship between state, society, culture, religion and nature, and the role of science and technology, in Russia’s Arctic region.


The programme for the trip, together with essays and photos by participants, can be found at:
www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/events/#tab-2